Satanic Comedy
Sir: You wrote some weeks ago, with reference to The Satanic Verses, that it was surprising that there had not been earlier protests about other books offensive to Islam.
These include what is probably the greatest poetic work in Western literature. When I was teaching at the University of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia almost 20 years ago, one of life's little ironies which I enjoyed there was the presence in the university library — as no doubt, in other libraries of the Muslim world — of Dante's Divine Comedy. Any of the locals who got round to reading this through would have come upon some satanic verses indeed.
Among the damned souls of the Inferno, the prophet Mohammed figures in the 'Well, we'll just sit here until you come down.' most gruesome passage of all, walking around disembowelled (XXVIII, 22 ff.). Later, in the Paradiso — adding insult to injury, as it were — Dante has his crusader ancestor Cacciaguida refer to the 'iniquity' of film and to Muslims as `quella gente turpa', 'that vile race' (XV, 142, 145).
T. S. Stewart
Meadow End, Cold Ash Hill, Newbury, Berkshire
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